This award provides support for the operation and maintenance of the NSF-University of Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Facility. The AMS Facility at Arizona operates a tandem accelerator and associated sample preparation facilities on behalf of a wide-ranging national community of researchers who depend on it for analysis of rare cosmogenic isotopes (mainly radiocarbon or 14C) used for dating of natural samples and artifacts. The AMS technique enables uniquely sensitive analysis for radioactive 14C in extremely small samples or where the concentration is extremely low. Recent projects at the NSF-University of Arizona AMS Facility have included analysis of polar ice and lake sediment cores for paleoclimate records, definitive dating of the Shroud of Turin, dating of specific organic molecular components in fossil samples, determining exposure ages of meteorites and terrestrial erosion surfaces, dating of early American maize remains, dating of fossil human skeletal remains, general archeological dating, dating prehistoric art, as well as numerous projects in earth sciences, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, and agronomy.
